FBI Inquires Into 'Passion Of Christ' Bootlegs

[Monday, November 24th, 2003]Both the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office have launched an inquiry into how the New York Post obtained a bootleg copy of Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ, according to IMDb.

The movie is said to have been screened for a panel of five people earlier this week for a review for the paper.

Mel Gibson's lawyer says that a civil suit may now follow. "Our biggest concern here is that a major media organization would become involved with pirates to concoct a news story to sell newspapers. For someone to feel the license to do this is just outrageous."

Paramount's Robert Friedman adds, "This is vigilante journalism. To get anybody's [movie] ... in a formative stage and steal it to review it is unconscionable."